Reflect. Remember. Remember the good and bad times. Everything’s must eventually come to an end which includes the middle school year. I think about the time where I was extremely fit, a time where I could run miles without breaking a sweat. Seeing my improvement from dead to strong. After school cross country will forever be ingrained in my brain, perched on the shelf of permanent memories. I remember knight at the museum. The stress, the awkwardness, and an emotional interview. Of course not forgetting how I had to down four tacos in the span of a minute before the event even started. Yearbook will forever being in my heart as well. The feeling of snapping hundred of photos, socializing with strangers, making new friends, and the excitement of seeing efforts of me and my teams work able to be on display. Plus, the joy that comes with being dead starving in the morning and entering class with a warm donut there to greet me. I love this year. Way better than the last, despite my hate in my schedule, the stress, and projects.

Ah, my last 20% project blog. This week I achieved my goal of keeping my new plants alive (yay!) Both plants seem to be doing well, the one I took home seems to be happy. I am happy to report thriving trees. Which means I have no struggles to report as far as plants. In class, I started working on my trifold for my presentation. My plan is to theme it like a greenhouse-ish or a botanical garden-ish. I am struggling a lot with time. Mother’s Day weekend prevented me from working on it then, plus math and final projects cloud my schedule leaving a small window for work. I also do not have art supplies available to me at home so I am fully reliant on class time and friends houses (shout out to Jane!) Things I would adjust right now would be to spend the whole of after school completing what I need done, and when I get to class speed glue everything together. As well as to finish my script at home.

The image has a powerful message of gratefulness. The child on the left is upset, while the child on the right is joyful. The child on the left is drowning in toys, while the child on the right has one toy. The difference in mood can be attributed to the value put on the amount they have. The child which is upset while having many toys probably still wants more, and does not consider what he has as “enough.” The child on the right is content with what he has and is grateful to have what he has, this is what he considers “enough.” This proves an important theme on how it is not about what you have, but in what you view it in. To be grateful for what you have, and not be upset at what you don’t.

I can rest easy is what I will say. I was aiming for the simple task of purchasing a bonsai starter/species. I have completed the goal I set out for, and even accomplished it while in school! Technically, I did two times what I was aiming for. Instead of one plant, I now have two to do my lab experiments on. How? Well this brings me into the struggle portion. The struggle of getting the plant to me in time for class. Inconveniently (but understandable) the plant nursery opens at 9:00am. I tried thinking of solutions like FaceTime to be able to choose a specimen, but 20% time was delayed to 10:00am due to block scheduling. My mom-z was already at the nursery. My only option was the place my trust on her decision skills. The stars had aligned and pigs started to fly as I saw the two beautiful organisms she had picked. Basically my struggle turned out good in the end! This means I do not have any adjustments to note this week. Except the fact that a command has been given by the Queen to take one plant home which must be obeyed!

Ah yes, my last rad reading which is for April. I dread these every month—what’s that? I am feeling sad? Anyway, an appropriate novel for me to report on is Wished You Were Dead by Aran (cause that’s how I feel about rad readings, absolutely, truthfully, would never lie about this.) The story takes place in a country called Croisen. In the beginning, the wedding of the king and queen is taking place. Evonne Deluah, the daughter of Hans Deluah as queen. The son of the previous king, Karloi, as the king. This marriage is arranged by Evonne’s father, who wants to seize the throne for himself, and happens to be Karloi’s greatest enemy. Evonne is quiet and patient as Karloi projects the hate for her father onto her, without recognizing who she really is. When they were children, he was captured by Hans and put at death’s door. Evonne, who looks a far cry from the feminine women she is now, risks her life to rescue him. Karloi is only keeping himself alive at the possibility she is still out there, while she is also the one he neglects, mocks, and yells at.

The story falls under the category of drama. Even though it starts off with a marriage, It has nothing to do with romance. My favorite part was how heart wrenching the peak of the story is. At the start, the novel may seem to go nowhere, but this is just building the suspense so high for the climax. There were so many times in the rising action where I had to stop and launch my fist into pillow. The climax is very much worth the wait, the reaction of Karloi realizing who Evonne’s true identity is absolutely priceless.

My favorite character is Ahsel, Karloi’s best friend. My reason for this is because he helped Evonne escape while Karloi had her starving and imprisoned in a tower. He is the only one with a brain to realize Evonne is on Karloi’s side and not her father’s. Ahsel is a clever character, for one being the only person to see the signs of Evonne’s situation. A example of this is when helping her escape, he realizes she has a curse which prevents her from speaking the truth. The text states, “You can’t answer even when I talk this way…then it must be magic.” This evidence shows cleverness through how he deduced the presence of magic through context clues. He pulled a conclusion from responses/lack of responses and body language displayed from Evonne in a few minutes. While she shows Karloi these signs everyday in all the years of marriage without him batting an eye.

Of course, my favorite line in the book is Karloi’s reaction to Evonne’s true identity. “If I cannot repay a debt even with death…Then how am I to repay it at all?” In this line, readers can see the true extent of what he has done hit him. So satisfying. He sees that even if he were to kill himself it would not be enough to repay the suffering and loss he caused to Evonne. This quote also puts the reader in a sticky situation on whether to accept or to not accept Karloi back into Evonne’s life.

It dazzles like crystals and glimmers in the sunlight. Maybe because the walls are cladded in mirrors, but that’s besides the point. My favorite room in the home is the dance room. The most obvious reason for this is the fact it provides a large amount of open space for dancing. There is a television in the corner which plays the music while I spin and flop. The space also doubles as a gym! There is already ballet bar that comes with the room, but all you need is a workout mat plus some weights and you’re all set. The floor to ceiling mirrors gives its third purpose, which is of course checking out nifty outfits. The small disadvantage is that there is a small pile of clothes in the corner because of indecision. A bonus reason is because of the television. It enables me to be able to chill and watch videos in private. Which I will not take for-granted because of the fact I have a sister.

This week, my goal was to continue shaping my bonsai. I have not achieved this goal. I sadly have to report no successes this week. My plant is a lost cause, it is all wrinkly and dried out despite being a succulent and being watered. I will probably donate it to the Hewes succulent garden in hopes it survives among the other succulents. In class I spent my time researching all the nurseries in southern California which carried (even better specialize) bonsai trees. My new course of action is to cut my losses and just purchase a young bonsai tree. I realized my goal of creating a bonsai was very ambitious, being that bonsai take many years or even generations to come to be what they are today. My goal from this point on is to keeping the new plant alive or even try bending it into another shape. I have to go on a little adventure around the many bonsai nurseries of California, which I am very much looking forward to.

My goal for this week was to start turning the plant into a bonsai, and that is exactly what I achieved. I brought my alternative plant into the classroom one 20% day, I had to clean it up because it was fresh from the outside. This is we’re I encountered my first obstacle this week. There was a huge family on spiders chilling on the plant. The mother popped out of the soil, and was squashed (shoutout to Margaret.) The children were found later between leaves and were slowly brought outside (with the help of the amazing Jane.) I don’t think I mentioned I have a deep rooted fear of bugs, this experience scared me to the bone (trying hard to laugh and smile my fear off.) I could be seen removing the larger leaves and some branches. What I am trying to do is to remove the photosynthesis efficiency of the plant, therefore new growth will come out smaller, creating the desired mini-leaved-plant look. I expected the leaves to pop off clean from the socket, but the leaves decided to come off in mess chunks. I am begging the plant lords that plant does not get infected or decide to self destruct. I am left with a lot of succulent leaves and branches. I do not let anything go to waste though, I will wait for them to germinate and will have tons of more potential bonsai! I wasn’t able to obtain bonsai wire. So my adjustments would be to try to find wire in time for Friday.

This week I did not do as much as I wanted. What I did this week was monitor the plant’s health after repotting. I will be honest, the plant was in rough shape when I found it. After transferring the to-be bonsai to another pot, most of the plant is severely yellowing and leaves are turning into mush. This is a sign of root rot, or overwatering, the number one way to guarantee a plant’s death. I am struggling right now with whether to keep or just start from scratch with a healthy specimen. The good news is that I have settled on a bonsai shape I want to pursue, and after watching many step-by-step tutorials, have a better grasp of what I am doing. The changes I will make to my plan is to use my time before Friday to possibly find and alternative plant (maybe more) so that I don’t have all my bets on one. I believe I will need to squish two weeks time into one to make up for the inconvenience. I will continue to have hope, but I really doubt it will survive.

A feast, also known as dinner, for three legends of my choice. Itzy, a popular Korean pop music and dance girl group, I will invite to a dinner. There are five members in the group…I will choose the two main dancers. First is Shin Ryujin, a powerful dancer with a loveable personality. As well as Hwang Yeji, the center dancer of the group who has a strong stage presence. I would love to get dance advice, as well as them teaching me the steps to their songs. Possibly even get a little performance. I would also like to invite Jang Wonyoung, she is hated by a lot of people for supposedly being attention seeking. I want to see if the allegations or true or not. She would also act as a translator because of lovely understanding of English. I would also like to get healthy eating and exercise advice from her. Of course my main reason for inviting them would to be to tell them how much I love and appreciate them and how much their music means to me!